“Not only has our country become more polarized, the press has become more polarized. When I was press secretary, the press was always liberal. Everybody knew it. They were liberal and you sort of just had to do your best and deal with liberal reporters. But they held themselves up to a standard that their jobs were still supposed to be fair and independent and down the middle and they would be tough on both sides. Well, that’s been abandoned. You now have a mainstream media which consists of the elite, New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, certainly MSNBC, all of whom have become activists for a cause.

“My book has example after example of where, when the two parties do identical things, the press covers the Democrats with sympathy and they cover Republicans with a sledgehammer. Republicans get it. It’s one of the reasons why the press is in such an amazing, huge decline everywhere. The mainstream media is dying. They really can’t change and it’s why they don’t care.”

[They’re certainly proving it this week, with major media outlets rushing to shape their coverage to the White House talking points on the impeachment inquiry. — Ed]